We had an opportunity at E3 to sit down with Silicon Knights director Denis Dyack and get a demonstration of his company's newest game, Too Human. Silicon Knights is perhaps best known for its critically acclaimed game Eternal Darkness, as well as the GameCube port of Metal Gear Solid. In Too Human for the Xbox 360, the company takes somewhat of a departure from its earlier work--this newest game will feature a lot more dense and fast-paced action. Dyack was quick to point out that Too Human will still be very closely tied in to its story and have a lot of those elements built in, but the two levels we looked at today focused entirely on the combat in the game.

In Too Human you take the role of a cybernetically enhanced warrior, fighting for the side of humans in a war against robots and sentient machines. The game gives you a third-person view of the hero, who uses swords and guns against hordes and hordes of enemies. Most of the enemies we ran into during the game were robotic goblins that went down easily against sword strikes and concentrated gunfire, though we also saw some other small mechanical enemies that were called dark elves and a couple of giant mace-wielding trolls that were very resistant to standard weapons fire (though you can jump on their backs from behind and quickly kill them by stabbing into their heads).

The fun in the game comes from using your weapons to build massive combo strikes, not unlike games such as Devil May Cry. You can use your melee weapons to toss enemies in the air, juggle them with your guns, or jump up after them and continue striking them in midair. The game's controls are easy to pick up--you simply use the left analog stick to move, the right analog stick to strike out with your melee weapon, and the two triggers to fire your guns. Doing combos is as simple as pointing around with the analog sticks, which lets you swiftly warp around from enemy to enemy while flashing some steel. The game's animation is very dynamic looking, which encourages you to try different moves with the control stick to figure out different weapon combos and moves as you try to string together massive combos. The more you strike enemies with your weapons, the more a combo meter in the bottom right-hand corner builds up. Eventually you can press the button that it shows to unleash a special attack. One of these was a dramatic-looking vortex above the hero's head that sucked in nearby enemies and exploded them. Another was a lengthy and beautiful sword combo that you could use to cut apart a whole swath of enemies if you got surrounded.

Silicon Knights promised a very dynamic and flexible campaign with role-playing elements. As you make your way through the game, you'll be able to pick up tons of different kinds of weapons, like a mass driver gun, swords for dual wielding, shields, maces, and polearms. The combat in the game changes depending on the type of weapons you have equipped, and you can even equip cybernetic enhancements to specialize your character. We noticed that switching to a polearm gave the hero a much wider range on his melee attacks (although the strikes were slower), and he was able to make sweeping strikes and telescopic pokes. It's possible to use the staff to pogo into the air off of enemies, and Dyack noted that internal playtesters often challenge themselves to stay airborne for minutes at a time in that manner, using the game's combat system. Aside from changing up the experience with different implants and weapons, Dyack noted that enemy placement and types will vary each time you play the game, adding to the replayability factor.

Perhaps what's most unique about Too Human is that the camera is dynamically controlled. You will almost never control the camera, which automatically sweeps back and zooms in to show the best action. This certainly gives the game a more cinematic look, as special attacks are shown off in the best manner--from our play time we didn't notice the camera to be much of a hindrance, aside from sometimes wanting to look around to get our bearings. But considering that the levels we saw were basically massive stone and ice caverns with extremely high ceilings and a lot of volume, we can't imagine the camera ever getting stuck in a bad spot with all that room to maneuver around.

The graphics in the game look great at this point, with nice sharpness on floor and wall textures in the caverns, as well as some intricate detail on character models even with upward of 15 or so robots and enemies onscreen. Too Human uses a heavily modified Unreal engine, so as you'd expect, the lighting in the game looks great, as colorful trails punctuate your sword slashes, and tracers from your automatic pistols point a ray of death at whatever you shoot at. The frame rate in the build we played definitely could use some work, though, but with the game not slated to ship until the holiday season, there's time for the Silicon Knights team to tweak all of that.

We enjoyed our brief time playing the Too Human demo at E3, and its easy-to-pick up and dynamic combat engine should make it a very attractive game for action fans. The ability to juggle and shoot enemies out of midair and some of the other aspects of the combat will remind some of Devil May Cry, but overall, the game's got plenty enough of its own style. Stay tuned to GameSpot for more information on Too Human as it becomes available--it's currently slated to ship this holiday season on the Xbox 360.

NCSoft is breaking into the sports genre with the upcoming release of Soccer Fury, a free-to-download, free-to-play urban take on the beautiful sport that will be released in 2007. We got a look at the game's trailer at the NCSoft booth at E3 today, and it looks as though it's turning out to be a fast-paced footie title, with plenty of urban attitude for good measure. Oh, and did we mention you can elbow people in the face? Yeah, there's that, too.

The demo movie, generated completely with Soccer Fury's in-game engine, according to producers, started off with a cool-looking lady running through a variety of skillfull dribbles with a soccer ball. Before she can finish off her little demonstration, a group of similarly hip-looking folks arrive on the scene, looking to play a pickup game. First on the scene is the slick-looking Fish, who takes the ball from the lady. Before he can go anywhere, though, a third character named Farrell approaches Fish and goes Jet Li on him, serving Fish with a devastating spin-kick directly to the dome.

There in a nutshell is the difference between Soccer Fury and more traditional games of soccer such as Winning Eleven and FIFA Soccer, and even urban arcade soccer games like FIFA Street and its sequel. While those games focus on the skill and grace of moving the ball up and down the field and making well-placed kicks on goal, Soccer Fury will also let you use punishing attack moves to pummel your opponents, perhaps even before they have a chance to get to the ball.

On the pitch, Soccer Fury will be a fast-paced 3-on-3 multiplayer online soccer battle, with goalies controlled by the game's artificial intelligence. Players will be able to create a character from scratch and customize them with an array of hairstyles, tattoos, and clothing and accessories choices, to create a truly unique online presence. As you play the game, your character will progress and pick up new moves, and not just soccer moves--he or she will also be able to pick up new martial arts attacks. And it won't be just your player that improves over time; as your team of friends gains experience, you'll be able to earn new team tactics and moves, including the old "everyone gang up on one guy and beat the living stuffing out of him" move. Yeah, we like the sound of that one, too.

Visually, Soccer Fury's game engine is looking fine indeed, with intricately detailed characters and animations that really convey both the finesse of the soccer and the impact of every punch and kick. As you might expect from the game, urban style is the name of the game for the characters we saw in the demo; it looks like you'll be able to create exactly the kind of streetwise character you'd expect to see in such a game. Additionally, the game's soccer pitch (such as it was) featured a grey and gritty downtown cement lot, with impressive-looking textures that really added a sense of grime to the overall feel of the game.

Soccer Fury isn't due for release until next year, so there's obviously a lot to learn about the game including how it will control on the PC, and how the game's "free to play, pay for extras" price structure will work. Nonetheless, based on what we've seen so far, the game's arcade feel and exciting mix of finesse and fury looks to be adding up to a winning combination. We'll be bringing you more on Soccer Fury in the coming months.

Gameguru Mania got a chance to talk with Sergey Zabaryansky of Deep Shadows, as he talks about White Gold: War in Paradise, the upcoming first person shooter with RPG elements which is set on Caribbean Islands. The game is slated for release in Q4/2007.

GGMania: Could you introduce yourself to our readers and tell them a little bit about what you do on White Gold?

GGMania: Can you give us a little background on the development team working on White Gold? Is this the same core team with which produced Boiling Point?

Sergey Zabaryanskiy:Yes, the core team remained the same. Also, we've welcomed several new specialists with a huge experience in game industry. The Boiling Point gave my colleagues a lot of experience and our professionalism has grown significantly. At the moment the development team can define priorities more efficiently and single out necessary resources for their implementation.

GGMania:Were you pleased with the reactions that Boiling Point received? Why the game (especially the initial release) has so many errors? What's happened?

Sergey Zabaryanskiy: There were ups and downs. When we started developing Boiling Point nobody believed that Freeplay shooter with RPG elements in the real setting can be done. But we proved that such kind of the game can attract attention of many players and, as a result, a lot of gamers have become our fans. Now we have a conception, so, our main goal is to do the game with medium requirements and without drawbacks of Boiling Point.

GGMania: Can you give us an overview of White Gold, telling us what the game is all about?

Sergey Zabaryanskiy: This time we'll visit one of small Caribbean countries. The political and warlike situation is the same as it's in Colombia itself, in the first part of the game. So there won't be any climatic or social innovations in White Gold. As far as landscape is concerned, I should say that the scene in White Gold takes place on various islands - from tiny atolls, where you can fit only a dozen of palm trees, up to huge islands where there are several cities, villages and bases of the hostilities. As for the plotline, we'll keep it a secret. But an attentive reader can guess about it from the title of the game. I can only say, that it's not salt or sugar.

GGMania: Tell us what these RPG elements are and how it affects gameplay?

Sergey Zabaryanskiy: The RPG-system will be very perplexed and interesting. Well, RPG/action balance will not be changed. The game will be very dynamic; shooter fans will enjoy an action-element. An advanced system of breakable objects and rag doll will make fights more impressive. After passing each level there will be opened up new possibilities and the player will get many notable advantages. The main feature in RPG-system is perks appearance. They all will be totally different - both perks increasing player's profiles and the ones providing unique features such as cat eyes, diver, etc.

GGMania: Compared to Boiling Point, are there any significant differences in the way you are designing and implementing the AI?

Sergey Zabaryanskiy: I would like to say, that in White Gold you will see wiser and astute opponents with more types of reaction. You will see a more enriched stealth-mode; the opponents can throw grenades and call for help, and they can also take you in the reverse.

GGMania: How interactive is the environment? What type of interactivity can players expect?

Sergey Zabaryanskiy: The environment of White Gold is very interactive. You can talk with any character, you can drive any vehicle you like, but you have to hijack the majority of them. A number of subjects you can see around will interact to you - trees will dandle from blowing-up, furniture will disseminate to pieces and so on.

GGMania: Please give us a feel for the arsenal that the player will have access to?

Sergey Zabaryanskiy: There will be more than a score of different types of weapon. Taking into consideration wishes of many players, we've decided to make new types of weapons, including exotic arms and up-to-date armory. You can upgrade your weapon and add different gadgets to it. This time some upgrades are also visible on the weapon like score, etc

GGMania: What vehicles are in the game?

Sergey Zabaryanskiy: All controlled vehicles: helicopters, tanks, trucks, military and civilian jeeps, etc. And also cars, boats, motor boats and other water-carriages.

GGMania: How many different handling characteristics does each vehicle possess?

Sergey Zabaryanskiy: Every vehicle we use in the game has nearly ten different characteristics, like speed, power, petrol capacity, grip of the wheels, a maximum turn at the corner and so on.

GGMania: How are the collision dynamics for vehicles worked out? How is damage assigned in terms of how much damage a car can inflict?

Sergey Zabaryanskiy: In White Gold we will see a zonal damage system. All dynamic objects can interact with vehicles. You can crash cactuses, palms, piles, but your car may have damage on your way - either a bumper brakes away or a capote, or a door, or you can blow out yourself.

GGMania: What sort of missions will be a part of the single player game? Can you give us an example?

Sergey Zabaryanskiy: Gamer will find a lot of different missions in the game. Whatever you like - simple mail quests or difficult forked tasks where you have to bust the computer, contraband of drugs and antique.

For example, you can take a quest to a photo where contrabandists discharge goods or, on the contrary, you can contraband these goods in absolute secrecy and not let a police cutter catch you. Or you can travel to an ancient Indian temple to disclose a hidden treasure and discover that you have to burst your way through the bandit's drug storage. You can..
But all this and much more you will see in the game..

GGMania: What can you tell us about the engine that is being used for the game?

Sergey Zabaryanskiy: First of all, White Gold (as well as our parallel project Precursors) is based on next-gen Vital Engine 3. It supports shadders 3.0, all the modern post-effects, such as motion-blur and others. Many objects are breakable, there will appear rag doll, vehicle physics will approximate to Grand Theft Auto series, and the system of their destruction will be more advanced than it was in GTA: San Andreas.

GGMania: What types of objects in White Gold have physical properties? Is it mostly vehicles, or does every object works with the physics engine?

Sergey Zabaryanskiy: All types of vehicles, furniture, transformers, piles and several types of building work with the physics engine. Most of the objects can be destructed, moreover, they usually have a regional damage system.

GGMania: The game should offer a map covering over many sq. km, in extreme detail. Do you plan to reduce the loading times? What kind of hardware should players have in order to experience good game performance? If I remember well, Boiling Point needed at least 1GB RAM....

Sergey Zabaryanskiy: We'll do our utmost to make the game work with system 2 GHz, 1 GB RAM. Secondly, we have to thoroughly work out every single element of the project. It mainly refers to vehicles and the system of their destruction. We'll try to contribute much more time and efforts to testing and fixing the bugs.
We think that the territory size is more than enough to realize all our ideas. We're going to concentrate on working out the missions, character classes and subject depth. And, of course, we won't forget about natural beauty of the Caribbean islands.

GGMania: Will the game have a multiplayer mode? If so, what will it include?

Sergey Zabaryanskiy: We don't promise anything now, but, of course, we would like to make a multiplayer mode. It all depends on time.

GGMania: What, in your view, is the most exciting aspect of White Gold?

Darkest of DaysGenre: Sci-Fi First-Person ShooterBy: Phantom EFX, Inc., 8Monkey LabsPlatorms:PC Exclusive (for now)Release Date: Q3 2008Official SIte:http://www.darkestofdays.com
We have been waiting a long time to write this article; over three months in fact. That was the length of time we had to wait under an NDA to finally talk about what we got to find out and see about a new first person shooter title called Darkest of Days. Way back in March at GDC we went up to a San Francisco hotel suite to chat with Jim Thompson, the president of PhantomEFX as he talked about their ambitious plans for the game. We also got to see some in-game video clips of Darkest of Days in action (the game itself was not available for a live demo).

Before we talk about the game, let's talk about the unusual path of the game's dev team. The Iowa based PhantomEFX is a game developer and publisher that you may not have heard of before now but they are a pretty successful provider of PC casino games with titles like Read Deal Cards and International Poker Tour. Thompson told us that after several years of selling these kinds of casual PC games the company felt it was time to enter the more hardcore gaming community. They actually formed a subsidiary game studio called 8Monkey Labs and started development of Darkest of Days.

The game itself has a truly massive scope in terms of its plot. Your player character begins the game in the 1800s in the US in the middle of a rather well known military battle (because of the game's storyline we are currently unable to reveal what specific battle is depicted). In the middle of the battle your character sees something happen that's totally out of his experience; a portal appears in mid-air with a time traveller coming out. This stranger pushes you through the time portal into the future while he apparently sacrifices himself at the battle. With your player character now in the far future you learn that there is a time war that is being waged as a so-called "evil" group is attempting to alter time in their favor. Naturally you do some time traveling yourself to try to stop these events from taking place. Thompson told us some of Darkest of Days interesting plot twists along the way but we don't think it would be wise to reveal what they have planned in order to keep the surprises intact.

The in-game demo movie we got to see showed off one of the various historical battles your character finds himself in, namely the blood US Civil War battle of Antietam. The map was one large outdoor battlefield as the Union and Confederate armies fired their authentic looking musket out in the open. One of the things that impressed us the most was the fact that there seemed to be hundreds of soldiers on screen at various times which is something that's rate for even the most advanced FPS title. 8Monkey Labs is in fact creating their own graphics engine for Darkest of Days from the ground up instead of licensing something like the Unreal or Source engine. Having tons of Civil War soldiers all around you firing their rifles and seeing the smoke from rifle barrels and cannons interact with the map is something that right up there with the most intense WWII shooter we have played.. The game is still in its early days but its already shaping up to be a different art and graphics style.

Thompson emphasized to use their plans for advanced AI in the game as we watched the demo movie. A moral syste is being built into the various enemies you will encounter in the game that is supposed to be totally unscripted. Depending on the situation, the Civil War troops around you might charge into battle or if they sense they are facing a superior foe they might try to run away. We look forward to seeing a live demo of the game to see this kind of activity first hand.

While the in-game demo movie only showed the Antietam battle, Thompson also told us about a few of the other time periods that the player will get to see in Darkest of Days. One will take place in the ancient city of Pompeii just as the volcano that would cover the city goes off. Yet another setting takes place in World War I during the battle of Tannenberg. In each time period you will be able to use period weapons but you will also get a chance to use future weapons as well. You will have to; enemies that want to wreck the timelines will be gunning for you with their own future weapons. Thompson also told us about one other specific time period and place that they plan to use in the game and quite frankly it was a bit shocking to hear that they were thinking about this particular time and place as one of the game's locations. We don't want to give it away but let's just say that the game's title is very appropriate when referencing this location.

We still have a lot of questions about Darkest of Days, such as how your presence in the various timelines might alter history. Also it sound like the developers will be concentrating on single player only; at the moment we have not heard about plans for any multiplayer features. One thing the game does have in its favor is that PhantomEFX isn't just a lonely indie game developer waiting for payment from a big time publisher. Because of their revenue from their PC casino games they can work on their hardcore game title without having to have a publishing deal in place. Hopefully this will inspire the Darkest of Days team to create the game they want to make instead of being forced to release it to make a publisher's third quarter financial report.

Again its still early days for this game's development and we didn't see a live demo but based on what we saw and learned over three months ago at GDC Darkest of Days looks like it will be a title that could make the most jaded FPS fan sit up and take notice with its time travel theme, the look of hundreds of human enemies on screen at once and some very unusual (for a game anyway) time periods and locations. We hope to get much more info on the game from PhantomEFX in the months ahead. Currently the game is due for release sometime in 2008.

Prepare to live a life of brutal combat as Codemasters reveals the gladiatorial adventure that awaits in Rise of the Argonauts™. Now in development at Liquid Entertainment, this grand scale action-RPG is scheduled to launch in 2008 for Games for Windows® and major console platforms.

With deep exploration and epic quests, players will take the role of Jason, King of Iolchis, and battle alongside iconic mythological heroes including Hercules, Achilles, Atalanta and others. As Jason grows from young king to true legend, set sail aboard the Argo and explore the vast Aegean - a dynamic world of islands filled with shining cities, lush jungles and deep forests.

Gamers will leave their mark on ancient Greece as they engage in heart-pumping, lethal, blood-spurting combat against hordes of enemy warriors, ruthless beasts and truly formidable mythological creatures. Whether Jason is lopping off heads or cutting warriors in half with his sword or if Hercules is wrestling with giant beasts, the intense action in Rise of the Argonauts™ will leave players wanting for their next confrontation.

Like all true heroes of Greece, the gods follow Jason on his quests. Jason will gain the favour of the gods and earn special abilities, but his actions may please some gods and displease others. Earning a god’s favour will grant players powers within the god’s domain, but drawing a god’s wrath may cause them to inflict a torment on the heroes at the worst possible moment.

Get ready to confront the creatures of myth and legend in Rise of the Argonauts™, coming in 2008 for Games for Windows and major console platforms. Aspiring heroes can witness the action that lies ahead in the first trailer movie, now available to download from www.codemasters.com/argonauts